The Gaming Experience

World of Pokèmon Day #10 Machida and the Capsule Hotel

Well the main focus of today was to visit Machida, the birth place of Satoshi Tajiri and essentially the place he based Pallet Town on. While geographically Shimoda fits the Pallet bill more, it is in Machida where it’s true origins lie. Only what became abundantly clear when we arrived was, that Machida has very much changed since Satoshi’s childhood.
A very large complex of department stores welcomed us to this fairly young city. Spread between four, 6 to 10 storey, malls the area was far from evoking that sense of rural tranquility. We attempted to look around further but as we entered the nearby park the rain intensified tenfold (and hasn’t let up since I may add) meaning we had to take refuge somewhere. The graphic art museum was closed aside from the one exhibit, ergo our time there was limited, so we ultimately fled to the safety of the malls, which is where our time in Machida ended.
It wasn’t always like this though, Machida is a very young city and supposedly a very rural once before development in recent years changed its landscape dramatically. If any of the woodlands where a young Satoshi Tajiri collected insects remain, they weren’t anywhere nearby for us to see. There was supposedly an agricultural museum somewhere detailing the areas more pastoral roots but sadly not even the town maps had it marked. Not wanting to get washed away in an endless search we had to give that one up too. Indeed the weather was so bad and the place so commercial we didn’t even make a video (to be fair the camera couldn’t work outside as the rain was trying to drown it…).
So we’re now in our Capsule Hotel in Shinjuku, staying one night before we leave Tokyo for a while towards Maebashi, but what is a Capsule Hotel like? We’re currently sleeping in fibre glass tunnels stacked on top of one another, in a very Japanese salary man style of lodging. It’s men only here as the women have their own floor entirely segregated from us. The shower rooms are communal and yes everyone is naked but it doesn’t feel strange or embarrassing; in Japan nudity is purity so there is nothing to be embarrassed by. There is also a restaurant and several lounges to use. However what is annoying is you can here everything and everyone inside these things doing the smallest things like rolling over and breathing out… its a very interesting place that’s for sure! Fingers crossed the night’s sleep will go swimmingly 😀
Until then however, we’ll see you in Maebashi, where the first gym challenge finally awaits!